Courtesy of the Buchese familyJames Olert, 16, shown in this 8th grade graduation photo from 2009, has been charged in the killing of Newark resident Miguel Torres.

NEWARK — In his 8th grade graduation picture taken two years ago, James Olert flashes bright eyes and a wide smile.

Back then his hobbies were basketball, video games and freestyle rapping with his brother and uncle, relatives said.

But in 2009, the same year of the photo, Olert’s mother said her son started to find some of the trouble that’s common in Newark’s poverty-stricken South Ward. He had run-ins with gangs. He faced a drug charge. Some nights he’d disappear and not return for days, relatives said.

But the problems never went past that, his mother said.

Clutching the graduation photo from Newton Street School, Olert’s uncle stood in disbelief, asking how anyone could believe the boy committed the cold-blood crimes prosecutors accused him of Monday.

Just 16 years old, Olert is charged as being the triggerman in a pair of gunpoint robberies that left two Newark men dead in the past four weeks, said authorities and relatives.

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray, who announced the arrests Monday, did not identify Olert by name because of his age. But his relatives confirmed he was the suspect and argued the allegations could not be true.

"Do you see a killer in those eyes?" his uncle asked, the graduation photo in one hand, a cigarette in the other. "There ain’t no killer in there." He asked not to be identified.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger Kesha Buchuse, mother of James Olert, 16, who has has been charged in the killing of Newark resident Miguel Torres, holds a photo of her son. J'mil Buchuse, left, shares stories about Olert, his younger brother in their Newark home.

Murray said a 16-year-old robber stuck a gun through a plexi-glass shield and killed Newark resident Miguel Torres on Jan. 17, even as the 37-year-old bodega owner was handing him money during a stick-up at the JNC Mini-Mart on S. 14th Street.

On Dec. 28, police say, Olert used a carjacked vehicle to drive to Orange Street and mug 36-year-old Wilfredo Campos. When Campos resisted, Olert allegedly shot him in the back of the head, causing a wound that killed Campos five days later.

The Prosecutor’s Office will seek to try the teenager as an adult, said spokeswoman Katherine Carter.

Olert’s mother, 38-year-old Kesha Buchuse, said her son has been in trouble before, but refused to believe he would take someone’s life.

"This family is going through crisis. I do send my deepest condolences to the (Torres) family," she said. "But he’s not a killer. We all do dumb things, but he’s not a killer."

Torres’ slaying gained notoriety last week when authorities released surveillance images of two suspects — a gunman and a lookout — involved in the attack. Olert was arrested Saturday and charged with murder and robbery in both cases, according to police, although his family asserts he turned himself in.

The alleged lookout, 18-year-old Isiah Adams of Newark, was captured Friday and faces the same charges in Torres’ killing, Murray said.

Three arrested in connection with the murder of Miguel TorresActing Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray speaks at a press conference to announce arrests of 18-year-old Isiah Adams and a 16-year-old boy tin the killing of Newark resident Miguel Torres. Torres was the bodega owner who was gunned down while handing over cash in a Jan. 17 hold-up at the JNC Mini-Mart. Prosecutors also released information about a Dec. 28 incident in which the 16 year-old gunman and 19-year-old Aziz Ellington carjacked a Honda CRV.

A third man, 19-year-old East Orange resident Azil Ellington, was charged with carjacking the vehicle linked to Campos’ death, police said. He was arrested Jan. 15

Police officials said the cold-blooded nature of Torres’ and Campos’ slayings resonated with members of the county’s homicide task force.

"What we basically had here was a hard-working man, a man that worked 16 to 20 hours a day at several different jobs to provide for his family," said city Police Director Samuel DeMaio. "For his life to be taken so tragically, that really transcended down to the detectives and the supervisors in the homicide task force."

Torres, who took over the bodega last summer, leaves behind a wife, a 6-year-old son and two teenage stepchildren, friends said. His relatives, who begged him to abandon the store after a drive-by shooting in July left one dead and four wounded just outside the door, said they were relieved when the arrests went public Monday.

"They have a lot of peace of mind now because of the arrests of these two people, and they feel now that justice is beginning," said Juan Arias, president of the Newark Merchants Association, of which Torres was a member.

Essex County Prosecutor's Office18-year-old Isiah Adams, of Newark, left, and 19-year-old Azil Ellington, of East Orange, were both arrested in connection to the two crimes in which 16-year-old James Olert is the accused triggerman.

A woman who answered the door at Adams’ address said the 18-year-old was a high school graduate and ROTC member who was struggling to find work as a longshoreman, but she denied his involvement in Torres’ slaying.

"Anybody who knew him, this ain’t him," said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

Olert’s mother told a similar tale. She described her son as a "fun-loving kid" who got into minor trouble because of the lack of social programs and jobs in the South Ward.

"We just want justice," she said. "For (James), and for the family of the victim."